The chief executive’s chair usually carries a lot of authority, but I have had a timely reminder here at City Rail Link that it is authority that goes only so far.
Any authority I do have at New Zealand’s biggest transport infrastructure project falls well short of foreseeing what the future holds - put simply, I cannot guarantee that it is not going to rain next Sunday, nor can I foretell the next disruption due to Covid.
We have a tremendous and exciting year ahead. Months of hard slog completing enabling works are behind us. We’ll still be working up a sweat with a lot of mahi ahead but construction’s now our main focus building the tunnels and stations and installing the rail systems, the phase when this game-changer of a project for Auckland really starts to take shape – above and below ground.
During a recent visit to our Mt Eden site I counted some 25 pieces of big and busy machinery in action – a very ‘heavy metal’ reminder of the scope and scale of CRL. Add to that the well-advanced work reassembling our Tunnel Boring Machine, Dame Whina Cooper, ahead of its underground journey into central Auckland.
At the Karangahape and Aotea sites, work is well advanced on carving out the country’s first underground stations. Further downtown, an important CRL celebration is only a few weeks away – after years of digging and delving, lifting and lowering, we’re about to return the historic Chief Post Office to Aucklanders.
With such a tremendous construction programme gathering pace, it’s fair to say that the project as a whole is tracking well, but CRL’s scale and complexity means we must plan for unforeseen challenges.
I’m often asked if CRL will be completed on time in late 2024 and within our $4.4 Billion funding envelope.
As I’ve indicated, I can’t see into the future regarding CRL’s timetable and money.
Auckland’s latest Covid lockdown is one example. The lockdown, although short, was also another unwelcome reminder of a New Zealand border reinforced against the virus.
Like every other infrastructure project in New Zealand, CRL depends on overseas workers with skills not found here. We will need to import another 100 or so of these skills this year.
While most of our international workers come on two or three-year contracts, the trans-Tasman highway between New Zealand and Australia is blocked for fly-in, fly-out workers, and for specialists here for only a few days. Add to the mix overseas workers already in New Zealand who haven’t been back to see their families for a year or so – they won’t stay here forever.